1.   Flaussing (makes my dentist happy)

2.   Catching up on email

3.   Exercising

4.   Cooking

5.   Balancing my checkbook

6.   Tapping my foot in time with a steady beat

7.   Repetitive guitar exercises

If you think about it, there are probably a whole list of tedius things you can get out of the way while you are watching television, which really don’t require a whole lot of concentration.  One reason I like to spend time practicing guitar in front of the television is because my mind is not locked into play mode.  I can really slow things down and work on those finger exercises that would otherwise be absolutely boring to do, if there wasn’t something else going on in the background to occupy my mind.  The pay off is that I get in a good half an hour to hour’s worth of quality practice, which helps out to improve my playing tremendously.  Plus, by distracting my mind from the guitar while I learn to play many of these patterns, I’ve noticed that it becomes far more natural when I go to execute the exercise in a real situation.

If it weren’t for practicing while watching television, I probably never would have put in the time to learn how to pick tap entire scales.  It was one of those two handed exercises that I really wasn’t all that great at starting out.  But, over the course of a month or so, working diligently in front of the television, it just began to feel more and more natural.  Today, I can pick tap my way through scales and runs that are just mind blowing.  And what is great is that you can do things like that too.  So, instead of wasting your time just sitting in front of the television, start using that time to make subtle improvements to your abilities as a musician while you are watching your favorite show.  You won’t believe how time well spent adds up to huge rewards in just a few short weeks.